“Identifying Research Priorities and Setting Research Agenda in Clinical Toxicology with a Focus on Snake Envenomation” was the theme of the round table discussion at the Toxinological Society of India Conference 2014 held at Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine on November 22 2014.
Theme lecture on Identifying Research Priorities and Setting Research Agenda was delivered by Dr. Soumyadeep Bhaumik, Cochrane Agenda and Priority Setting Methods Group, & BioMedical Genomics Centre, Kolkata, India
Health Research priority setting processes enable policy-makers, researchers, clinicians and public health professionals to effectively use available resources to collectively decide on what problems or uncertainties are worth trying to resolve/understand for maximal benefit. A transparent and evidence based priority setting process not only helps prioritization but also puts in perspective of patients and the need to improve health outcomes and reverse inequity. Snakebites, a neglected tropical condition, affects millions and kills thousands and yet there is miniscule research in this arena. Interventions and diagnostics available for snakebites in most regions of the world are at best described as sub-optimal, with a poor evidence base and do not measure up to the standards of modern day therapy in terms of efficacy, toxicity and availability. The presentation focused on the basic concepts of research priority setting exercise, its utility and methods and processes for identifying research gaps and setting research agendas including question formulation, evidence assessment and prioritization process.
The presentation is available here Identifying Research Priorities & Setting Research Agenda. (Click)
The Round Table discussion that followed had the following discussants
1. Professor Y K Gupta (Chair), Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi,India
2. Professor Yuri N. Utkin, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russia
3. Professor Chittaranjan Maity, Head of the Department, Department of Biochemistry,KPC Medical College,Kolkata,India
4. Professor Antony Gomes, Laboratory of Toxinology and Experimental Pharmacodynamics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata,India
5. Professor Juan J Calvete, Laboratorio de Venomica , Estrtuctural y Funcional Instituoto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Spain
6. Dr Soumyadeep Bhaumik, Cochrane Agenda and Priority Setting Methods Group, & BioMedical Genomics Centre, Kolkata, India
7. Professor Santanu K Tripathi (Rapporteur for Toxinological Society of India). Head of the Department , Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata,India
The discussion focused to understand how priority setting processes can be inculcated in the field of snake envenomation and what broad domains can be considered priorities, as well as the ways to deal with challenges to development and implementation of research agenda in snake envenomation .
Please visit : http://capsmg.cochrane.org/ for more details and resources on setting research agendas and identifying research priorities.
